WOBURN - A Burlington man was among four men arrested early Tuesday in an alleged brutal torture and kidnapping of a Lowell man in an East Woburn hotel.

Police said the crimes occurred over an apparent $5,800 drug debt owed by the victim, who was taken from his home against his will and eventually ended up at the Red Roof Inn, where he was punched and beaten with a lamp and metal rod.

Expected to be arraigned in Woburn District Court today were:

* Nick J. DiGirolamo, 23, Mallard Way, Burlington;

* John Geezil, 25, Malden;

* Michael J. Talluto, 21, Malden;

* Marinos J. Spirakis, 28, Beverly.

All four men were charged with kidnapping, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, conspiracy, and threatening with the intent to commit extortion.

DiGirolamo could also face drug-related charges, as police said they seized from him 16 Oxycontin pills, the powerful synthetic pain-killer that reportedly induces a heroin-like high when tampered.

If convicted on the kidnapping charge alone, the suspects face sentences that will be served in a state penitentiary, a Woburn Police officer said this morning.

The arrests occurred in the parking lot of Bickford's in East Woburn, where the suspects thought they had arranged a meeting with a man who would pay off the victim's drug debt.

The man turned out to be a Boston police officer whom the victim had called from the hotel room at the Red Roof Inn. The officer alerted police from Woburn, Boston, State Police, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the U.S. Customs Service, who were all at the scene at the time of the arrest.

Confiscated from the hotel room were slips of paper with "drug notations," a scale, a calculator and a book with hollowed out pages, the latter of which is generally used to conceal drugs.

Also found in the hotel room were several bloody towels, a face cloth and a roll of toilet paper. The victim told police DiGirolamo arrived at his home in Lowell at about 3 a.m. on Monday to collect a drug debt of $4,300 plus $1,500 interest, and would not leave.

Spirakis arrived at the Lowell address at about 11 a.m. on Monday, and the two men took the victim against his will to the parking lot of a restaurant in Billerica, where two men not identified in the report assaulted him.

He was then taken to the Red Roof Inn, where Geezil and Talluto joined the other two suspects and proceeded to beat the victim some more, police said. The victim said at one point he believed a gun was placed inside a pillow case and put to his head.

DiGirolamo also allegedly flicked cigarettes at the victim, and also tried to get the victim to eat dog excrement. DiGirolamo also reportedly retrieved an iron from the room, turned it on, and threatened to burn the victim's chest area, while Spirakis allegedly made a telephone call in an apparent attempt to obtain a chain saw.

The victim told police he was allowed to make telephone calls in order to come up with the money that he owed DiGirolamo, which is how the victim was able to contact his uncle, the Boston police officer.

A meeting was arranged at McDonald's on Montvale Avenue, where DiGirolamo, Geezil and Talluto arrived in one car and Spirakis and the victim in another.

The victim's uncle met the suspects in an undercover car, and the meeting was quickly moved to the Bickford's lot, where multiple police officers made the arrests.

Spirakis reportedly tried to flee on foot toward Erie Street, but was captured and had to be subdued by several officers before being placed in handcuffs.